Rafting and the end of our trip!

The end of our trip ended with a rafting experience!  We rafted down the Matanuska river (the one that came out of the glacier so imagine how cold)! 

 Getting ready to launch!

 All geared up hoping not to get wet!

 Notice Mat is on the left...Nate on the right.  Mat was very nervous, not wanting to get into any rapid...Nate was excited and wanted to get into the biggest rapid.  Mat would ore one way...Nate would ore the other.  It was a funny experience!

 Heading into the muddy and freezing rapids!  I even got knocked over into the boat and ended up getting soaked!

 We made it!  Oh, and it was about 10:00 pm!

 A little wet!

 I have no idea where Mat got this style!

 My new fashion statement...stripes with polka-dot rain boots!

 Sadly the 2 weeks had to end and we caught the red-eye home.  Not fun with kids!

 I loved that this was one of my bags...yummy fresh halibut!  It was such an amazing trip and I am so happy we were able to go!  Thanks to the Cardon family for showing us Alaska!

Mt. McKinley and some other stuff...

We headed up to Talkeetna for some food and hopefully a view of Mt. McKinley.  The day started out cloudy so we thought there was no way we would see it but as we turned the corner, the clouds went away and there it was!  We were so happy to get such a great view of it! 

 Watching the Salmon try to jump up the waterfall!

 The boys loved the backyard.

 Relaxing at Target!

 Building a zipline...

 It works!!!

 Sushi...yum!!

Trying honey at the market on Saturday morning.

 A man singing in a box.  He was pretty funny!

 Finding cool Alaska treasures!

 Jared caught some salmon!

 Mt. Baldy

 Mat wanted to climb Mt. Baldy so we did it again!  This time no clouds!

 In Talkeetna there is a hostel called The Roadhouse.  They have the best sourdough pancakes so we had to try them!  The historic end-of-the-road town of Talkeetna is known today throughout the world as the base for international climbers making their way to climb Denali (Mt. McKinley), North America's tallest peak. 

 They were huge!!

 We left the kids home one night and headed into Anchorage to eat.  The found was amazing!

 Mat was nice and took the boys to the zoo while we went and got manicures!

Homer

Once again I loved the drive to Homer.  It is about 6 hours away from Hillary so we got a hotel room for a night.  Homer is such a fun town with little shops and restaurants.  It was pretty chilly that night but we still walked around!

 

We had to get some seafood!!

 Mat & Hillary were the only ones that like oysters so they got some...yuck!

 Nate wanted to try one and he liked it!

 The boys loved the shops and wanted me to buy everything they saw!

 I loved this picture of them...they were worn out!

 

The beach that night was chilly but that didn't stop the boys from getting a little wet.

 Mat loved the rocks...in fact we brought a bunch home.  You should have seen us stuffing them into suitcases and trying to get the weight even.  But we got them all home!  The boys also had fun searching for sea glass!

 Cold!!

The reason why we went to Homer was because Mat was going halibut fishing.  I love halibut and he was willing to go out with my dad to get me some!  What we didn't know is how sea sick he would get.  He was miserable!!  He threw-up multiple times over the side of the boat and he even said he talked to mermaids....right.  I really felt bad for him but I wanted some fish!!  Lucky for us he caught some and they came in!

 Sick at sea!

 One thing I hadn't seen by now was any wild animals.  I wanted to see something, I was in Alaska for crying out loud!!  This is the picture Mat sent to me on his way home from Homer.  We had already gone home so we missed it.  Beautiful picture but I wish I had seen it in real life.